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Brunswick High School Rachel's Challenge group responds to recent school shootings

Updated February 28, 2018 at 12:34 PM;Posted February 26, 2018 at 12:38 PM

Brunswick High School Junior Tyler Benson and his fellow Rachel's Challenge group members came up with a simple, yet effective, reaction to recent episodes of school violence across the country.(Brian Lisik/special to cleveland.com)

BRUNSWICK, Ohio -- Among the myriad outreach efforts across the country in the weeks following the deadly school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, the latest project by the Brunswick High School Rachel's Challenge group may not seem like much.

Then again, its message may just as easily spur a paradigm change, according to students in the program.

"We wanted to do something to promote positive change," said Rachel's Challenge member Tyler Benson, a junior, of the group's combined positive message board and hashtag campaign launched last week.

"You hear about a lot of students walking out of school (in protest). About 10 of us met and started talking about what we can do to implement change in a positive way. And, as students, we want to be heard," Tyler said.

Rachel's Challenge is a national program to make schools "safer (and) more connected places," according to its website, replacing "bullying and violence ...with kindness and respect."

The program, which has more than 20 million participants, is named for Rachel Joy Scott, the first person killed in the Columbine High School shooting on April 20, 1999. Rachel was known for her simple acts of kindness during her short life.

Students having their say

Tyler said adults -- as well as the representatives those adults have elected into public office -- have seemingly done little to change an increasingly unsettling environment at schools across the country.

"The goal is to let everyone know that no matter what you are going through, you are not alone," Tyler said of the latest Brunswick High School Rachel's Challenge project, adding that the simple messages such as "you matter" and "never give up" -- taken from and added to the bulletin board hung in the central hallway of the high school -- might make the ultimate difference to someone going through a challenging period.

"School is supposed to be a safe, fun place," Tyler said. "Our #powerofpositivity (campaign), along with the national #parklandstrong, is a way for us to help our students - something we can do in our school to help spread positivity. And it's what Rachel would have wanted."

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